Man v Food's Adam Richman – now causing Fandemonium

The once portly consumer of eye-popping amounts of chow on Man v Food has slimmed down and is about to launch Fandemonium, a show exploring fan communities. He talks about Kansas truck events, living in gentrified Brooklyn and the magic of scotch eggs

It’s called Fandemonium, and it’s essentially a celebration of fans: their passion and the ingenuity with which they celebrate their passion. Anyone who’s a fan of anything will connect with the passions on this show. Easy.

I have to say, it feels like I’m only interviewing half of you. You’re much skinnier now than you are on the show.

I knew I had to lose weight when I saw the Daytona Fandemonium episode. I worked with a nutritionist, and really was very meticulous about what I ate. The real impetus is that I’ve always wanted to do Soccer Aid. I worked out in soccer kits as an inspiration, and now I’m doing it in June. If I was still really big, people would roll their eyes. But now they see me and go: “Oh gosh, this might actually be a viable thing.”

I’ve bought you a scotch egg. Have you ever eaten a scotch egg before?

Oh, thank you. That’s very, very thoughtful. Andy, my Food Network compatriot, makes his own scotch eggs. He keeps the yolks runny. They make me think of big Keith from The Office, and how he takes bites out of them like they’re apples. Thank you for this. I love the fact that it is essentially half of the calorific intake that I allow myself each day in a handheld packet.

You tend to say that everything you eat is delicious. How many times has this been a lie?

I don’t have to lie, because I vet these shows. We find out about them because they have a certain appeal. There was this one place we filmed for Man v Food, and the kitchen was just so revolting that I told the network no. I have parents who take children to the restaurants that I go to, and I take that very seriously.

Something else I’ve noticed about you is that, whenever you eat anything, you automatically do the accent of where the food came from …

Wait, do I? What accents have you heard?

In the new show, Jamaican and …

There’s a little bit of an inside joke on that one. We were shooting in Pittsburgh, and there were some rudeboys looking at us, like [agonisingly broad Jamaican accent]: “Ya shoodent be shoe-ting ere.” So we’re driving around in this grim area of Pittsburgh and I start talking in this over-the-top Jamaican accent.

As someone who’s from Brooklyn, I take exception to that. It was not always this haven for artisanal small-batch soda syrup baristas that look like 19th-century farmers named Caleb. No, when I first moved there, my guitar teacher lived at the end of my block. My dad used to say: “All right, I’m going to slow the car down, you do a commando roll out, I’ll toss you the guitar and pick you up at three,” because there’d be these Dominican guys having pool cue fights in the street. And now you go there and Master Sabu’s karate doju is an Arian yogic baby studio. I think it’s wonderful that my home now has this different personality, but a third of the US can trace its roots back to a very different Brooklyn.

Whereas in your shows you mainly travel around the red states.

That’s because barbecue culture does not take hold in New York and Connecticut. It does in North Carolina and Texas and Missoula. And because I don’t come off like an 18th-century farmer called Caleb, the people there say: “You’re all right, man.” I work with the armed forces, I sponsor a Little League. These are the sort of things that speak to ardent rightwing Americana, despite the fact that I practise the Jew craft.

Fans can be a scary bunch. What’s the weirdest thing you encountered during filming?

The only time I felt “We’re not in Kansas any more, Toto” was Trucks Gone Wild at the Redneck Yacht Club. It’s muddy and it’s crazy and it’s lawless and there 23ft trucks and gasoline and beer and bikinis and wild mudpits. I have absolutely no touchstone with that, and yet they embraced me because they keyed in on the passion I feel for Spurs and the New York Yankees and Radiohead.

You have a passionate fanbase yourself. Does that ever get scary?

Um … look … listen, I would say yes and no. Here’s the bottom line: despite the fact that I’m pretty gregarious, I value my privacy. But of all people, my Buddha has been Vanilla Ice. Rob Van Winkle said shake every hand, take every picture and you’ll have an army of fans who’ll follow you from project to project, regardless of how hot you are. And look at him, he just had a show here in the UK and he’s 100% right. If you want to reap the benefits of fame, be they financial or social or romantic, you must pay that debt.